


Chill

by nervoussurfer



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/F, M/M, Multi, Poly imbalance, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, everything sucks and zay is longsuffering, set during-ish the Ski Lodge arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 09:12:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7634515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nervoussurfer/pseuds/nervoussurfer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>anyways that arc was the gayest thing i've ever seen(what do you mean everyone ended up in het relationships shhhh let my little queercoding heart dream) and i'd just like to take a second to highlight something that may be going under everyone's radar: The Second Best Poly Ship In The Show</p><p>sorry i haven't updated anything else in months and am now shoveling out this halfbaked took-10-minutes gargage, you just have to accept that i'm unreliable trash lmfao</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chill

The thing about Zay being excluded, that was a running joke.

It was sort of funny, and Zay was a funnyman at heart. They were together, the three of them, had been for a little while now. Luckily, the rest of their friend group was so embroiled in their horrible triangular dance that they didn't even notice that others had found the correct answer to a situation like that. Seriously, sometimes Zay just wanted to wring that cowboy's neck and shake him until the right answers shook their way down the ball maze of Lucas's brain. Just date both of them, you oblivious fool. That's what Zay had done, and look, it turned out fine. (And Zay knew what a triangle was supposed to be too - connections of love on all sides, not two at an angle. He saw right through those girls.)

But it seemed, soon, the triangle was ending. This whole lodge trip had been a nightmare. First, walking in the door and seeing "Couple's Weekend" - way to make a poor kind poly guy feel like shit, universe. Next, a new boy in the mix to stir up the triangle. Stress, stress, stress, no room to love on his lovers.

And it seemed, they were content to keep him at arm's reach.

Okay, so the thing was, no one knew about their arrangement but the three of them. They had agreed on it haphazardly, time hadn't done much to settle them in, especially when in public it was more acceptable for the two smart ones to be together - obviously like minds gravitate towards each other, right? Well, if we're being chronological about it, Zay and Farkle had become interested first. (Yeah, for real. Zay supposed Lucas wasn't the only oblivious one.)

But if the triangle couldn't accept their own answer, could they accept their friends taking that route?

"Riley would accept us. She'd probably be thrilled," Farkle had said.

"Maya might make a few uncouth jokes, but she loves her friends, does she not? And if Riley's for it, Maya will be for it." Isadora had said.

"Lucas..." Zay had said.

"Lucas is loyal. He'd never hurt anyone." Farkle had said.

"Lucas is a big teddybear." Isadora had said.

"You don't know him like I do." Zay had said.

Zay still remembered that Texan boy, the strength of a thoroughbred and the fury of a brush fire. The one that could merely glare anyone away once he'd worked up a reputation. The one that, if there was still any remnant left of in this new Lucas, completely terrified him in a way that chilled his very bones.

"So, do we only tell Riley, then?" Isadora had said.

"If we tell Riley, she'll tell Maya. And we can't be sure Riley would be able to get across to Maya not to tell Lucas. You know how she gets when she's all, bubbly-happy-sparkly." Farkle had said.

"Yeah, and Maya might not take her seriously. Just another hurr-hurr to taunt Ranger Rick with." Zay had said.

"True. And I, don't feel comfortable keeping a secret from only one member of our group. A social conundrum." Isadora had said.

So they hadn't told anyone. A good compromise. No one's feelings would be hurt, until inevitably everyone's were. Equality. And in the end, they'd hardly told their parents either - Zay's father didn't even know his son was into boys, nonetheless poly. Farkle was closer with his dad, but discreetly only disclosed that he was "dating someone". Smackle's family was distant, unless it came to academic achievements. It was sad, but in the end, probably safer. If the group ever ended up on one of their destiny quests at the Minkus, Smackle or Babineaux households, no mention of their arrangement would slip.

But that was a month or so ago, and now they were at the lodge, and it was the shock of a chill to his Southern heated sensibilities.

It made sense that Isadora and Farkle would be the front couple. They were so alike. They couldn't keep fooling everyone that none of them were dating any of the others, so it was clever to misdirect by making everyone assume only the most socially acceptable couple was together, and the third was only, well, a third wheel. It made sense. It was smart. It hurt so much.

Zay had to sit on the sidelines and watch his two sweethearts, his two darlings, his two, uhm, people he was dating, get to enjoy all the fun couple stuff. They got to jump up and hug each other when they answered correctly on that relationship question, though Zay had brought the awkward humor down on himself. They got to bond over butterflies, they got to almost die together-

It was the night before the last day when Zay couldn't take it anymore. They'd refrained from hanging out too much, to not raise suspicion, but Zay was calling an emergency meeting.

They stood out in the hall and spoke in whispers, careful to not let their voices carry either up to the bedrooms, where the majority of their classmates slumbered hard, or down into the drama pit of the front room, where the rest of their classmates would be.

"Sorry, honey. I wish we'd had opportunity to all be together, but." Smackle rested a comforting hand on Zay's arm, and Farkle concurred her feelings with a simple "yeah".

"Do you really? Do you really wish that?" He murmured, a bit louder than he'd wanted, volume given power by pent-up emotion.

"What?"

"Do y'all... even need me? You two are happy together, and, I dunno, I-" Sigh. "I can deal with, being the class clown. When you make everyone laugh with a well-placed joke, it's better than being laughed at for, other reasons." Despite being his home, Texas was Texas, and the South was the South. No place on Earth was truly wholesome, but it'd taught him defense mechanisms. "But I can't deal with people I admire and adore laughing at me."

"Zay..."

"Do you really believe that, Zay? We're doing our best, it's just difficult, neither of us have had a relationship like this before..."

"Do you think I have?"

Silence for a while. Bashful and embarrassed, freshmen out of their depth.

"I'm sorry I didn't save you..." Zay barely intoned, actively trying to make his voice audible but it wouldn't raise higher than the bottom of his throat.

"What?"

"I'm sorry that Maya had to jump in and save you and not me cause I'm a shitty boyfriend, I was just mad so I ignored you and wasn't looking and you could've died-"

"Zay. Look at me." Farkle cupped Zay's cheek, rubbing a tear away with his thumb. "I don't need you to be Superman. I know you're the only boyfriend I've had, but you're the best boyfriend I've had. You're sweet, and handsome, and light-hearted. You bring my mind out of all the minutia, so I can see it for what it is."

Zay was full on sobbing now, shoulders shuddering like he was chilly.

Smackle leaned on his shoulder for support, hugging his arm, her own eyes behind glasses glittering. "We love you, Zay. Why else would we have said yes to this whole thing?"

Sniffling, Zay took Farkle's outstretched hand, and twined his other with Isadora's. "I- I, it just, hurts. Every time we can't, be in public, I, I'm afraid but, after the trip, maybe we should t-tell them?"

"Of course. We'll be right there next to you."

"...I don't want to leave you now. Can we stay out here?"

In the morning, that's how they were found, leaned against the wall, still holding each other's hands.


End file.
